The present invention relates to electrical connectors and, more particularly, to an electrical connector assembly for connecting a cable assembly to a connector accepting substrate.
Various types of connectors and connection systems have been developed for connecting a multi-wire cable to a printed circuit board or other circuit-bearing substrate. In general, connectors have included complementary two-piece plug and receptacle combinations in which a receptacle is mounted on the surface of the printed circuit board and is designed to releasably engage a mating plug. Typically, the pin and sockets of the two components are configured for a straight-through type of engagement, that is, the principal axes of the pins and pin-receiving receptacles are in-line with that of the wires of the connected cable. In general, a two component plug and receptacle combination is an efficient type of interface, although it is oftentimes difficult to obtain a low-profile connection because of the presence of the receptacle mounted on the surface of the printed circuit board. Other connection schemes have used edge connection systems in which plural conductive traces on the surface of the printed circuit board are formed in a parallel spaced relationship perpendicular to an edge of the board. The edge of the printed circuit board is then engaged with a one-piece connector as used, for example, in `cage` type mounting systems. This latter system does allow a low-profile connection, although the requirement to bring signal lines to an edge of the printed circuit board limits design flexibility, especially with larger and more complex printed circuit boards.
In addition to the problems associated with effecting a cable interconnection to a printed circuit board, the passage of the cabling runs between circuit boards can present a problem where a large number of cables are connected to closely spaced circuit boards. While various types of cable ties, lacing, and securements are known, inattention to cable placement can create problems where close board spacing is required.
Historically, the trend in circuit board packaging has been in the direction of closely stacked adjacent boards haing minimal inter-board spacing. While edge type connectors are consistent with minimum inter-board spacing and are particularly well suited for mounting printed circuit boards on a motherboard, for example, edge connection places constraints on the circuit designer by limiting, to some extent or the other, the total number of connections to those that can be brought to an edge. Traditional two-components plug/receptacle connectors can be mounted on the surface of the board and do not present the constraints imposed by edge connectors; however, the need to mount one of the components on the circuit board limits inter-board spacing.